Fire Department Orders Evacuation of Basement at Abhishek Banerjee’s Office Building in Kolkata

Kolkata, West Bengal: The West Bengal Fire Department on Friday issued a notice to immediately vacate the basement(s) of the premises at 9 Camac Street, citing non-maintenance and inadequacy of required fire safety measures. The premises house the office of Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

In a notice issued by the Director-in-Charge of the West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services, the department said the basement(s) of the building were unsafe from a fire and life safety point of view and posed an imminent threat to the safety of life and property of the building and its surroundings.

The notice was addressed to Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, constituted attorney of Rama Devi Goenka and MS Piramo Investors Ltd, identified as the owner. It stated that a notice for a hearing regarding non-compliance with fire safety measures had earlier been served, but the recipient did not appear at the hearing.

The department referred to Section 11C of the West Bengal Fire Services Act, 1950, and said the responsibility of obtaining a Fire Safety Certificate after complying with all fire safety recommendations lies with the owner.

It further stated that the Renewal of the Fire Safety Certificate for the 2B+G+7 storied business building at the premises, bearing memo number IND/FES/20182019/1/37021 and dated August 10, 2023, was valid for three years and had expired. The department said the certificate had clearly recommended its renewal before expiry, but the owner had failed to renew it.

Considering the non-maintenance and inadequacy of the required fire safety measures in the basement(s), the Fire and Emergency Services directed the owner to vacate the basement(s) immediately. It further directed that the basement(s) should not be used unless the required fire safety measures are complied with and the Renewal of Fire Safety Certificate is obtained.

This comes after the Trinamool Congress alleged that a group of people associated with the BJP entered Banerjee's office in the early hours of Thursday and vandalised the premises and assaulted security personnel.

Six people have been arrested by the state police in the case.